You may have heard of, if you haven’t already seen, the stupefyingly terrible film The Room. The film is so bafflingly inept and nonsensical that you’re hardly surprised to learn that writer, director, and star Tommy Wiseau had never made a film before; indeed, you might find yourself wondering if he’d ever even seen a film before.
The Room (released, barely, in 2003 and available on DVD) is a mawkishly melodramatic, and deadly serious, drama about a man betrayed by his fiancee, which Wiseau has been trying to market as a quirky comedy because no one can watch the film without laughing at his hero’s travails. Rent The Room if you want to stare dumbfounded at your TV for an hour and a half some night. Seriously, rent it.
Seeing it for myself the first time not long ago, I was struck by the manosphere-style misogyny that pervades almost every frame of the movie. It’s not an MRA film, and Wiseau is no MRA, but somehow he manages to encapsulate every terrible stereotype about men and women that most MRAs seem to believe.
The film tells the sad story of Johnny (played by Wiseau), a good-hearted, long-haired banker with an unclassifiable accent who is betrayed at work (he doesn’t get his expected promotion) and, more importantly, by his “future wife” Lisa, who blithely cheats on him with his best friend.
Lisa is portrayed like the evil bitch villain in nearly every MRA urban legend: she’s a self-absorbed twit who, in addition to cheating on Johnny, falsely accuses him of domestic violence and fakes a pregnancy just to fuck with him.
Johnny, meanwhile, is supposed to be seen as a loyal, helpful, compassionate man who cares deeply about his friends and treats his adored “future wife” Lisa like the princess he tells her she is.
I say “supposed to” because Johnny is hardly the great guy Wiseau thinks he is. For one thing, everything he does and says is bit … off, as if his body has been taken over by a space alien who’s learned everything he knows about women (and human interaction in general) by reading comments on Reddit and watching Christopher Walken as “The Continental” on Saturday Night Live without getting the joke.
For another, he’s a rage-filled narcissist with a bad case of “nice guy” entitlement and absolutely no self-awareness. When his friend Mark tells him about a woman beaten so badly she ends up in the hospital, he responds with a hearty laugh. (“What a story, Mark!”) And when he confronts Lisa about her false accusations of domestic violence (“You are lying! I never hit you!”), he angrily shoves her down onto a couch. It doesn’t seem to occur to Johnny (or to Wiseau) that this too is a form of domestic violence.
When, after learning of Lisa’s betrayal, he trashes their apartment and [SPOILER ALERT] kills himself with a conveniently located pistol, Wiseau presents it as the ultimate comeuppance to the cruel Lisa.
While you have to see the whole film to truly appreciate its epic badness, the following clips will give you some idea of what I’ve been talking about.
First, the trailer, which tries its best to cover up the film’s true weirdness:
The infamous “roof scene” in which Johnny tells Mark (the guy Lisa is sleeping with) about Lisa’s accusations of domestic violence:
A compilation of some of Johnny’s best (i.e. worst) moments:
This one (ignore the misleading title) gives you some idea of Lisa’s oblivious evilness:
Here’s Hitler reacting to the film. (Note: Not the real Hitler.)
And here, if you dare, is the whole damn movie in its entirely. (If you’re pressed for time, you may want to fast forward through the film’s five completely unerotic sex scenes, set to the worst slow jams ever recorded.)
EDITED TO ADD: Oh, and here’s the scene the gif above is from. Johnny is the most efficient flower buyer and pug-petter in the world.
Those are fucking ancient super fears. Well, maybe not ancient, but they are written into the english common law; Laws against rape, in the english speaking world at least, have always been accompanied by legal opinion that basically says “Being accused of rape is worse than being actually raped, so let’s make that difficult to do.”
Well, they might be reading feminist blogs at least.
Bee, here’s the scene with the pug. Tommy Wiseau is the most efficient flower shopper in the world.
That pug is a great actor. HI DOGGY!!!!!
He deserves better than that.
I like that the pug is on the table at a flower shop.
Why is it called “The Room” anyway? As far as I can tell, there are multiple rooms. Shame… Cause it could of made a great name for a horror movie/psychological thriller.
As it is, it just seems to be an unintentional horror movie. *badump pish*
Based on the clips provided, I am not nearly fucked up enough right now to endure “The Room”.
holy dog balls!
I believe it’s a Gaulish accent, based on my Amazonian adventures. A fine people and worthy adversaries, the Gauls. Generally speaking. Nobody’s perfect.
And just to derail, stephen Woodworths “let’s examine when human life begins” went down in flames!!! Canada will not be reopening the abortion debate.
And thank god, because you know what? Everything the antiabortionists tell you about regret…that’s what happens when you give up a baby for adoption. I know, because I made that choice with my firstborn. At least, that’s how it was for me.
So, let’s celebrate in the knowledge that Canadian women and girls can be spared that experience! /end derail
In terms of the random dog, that’s not Wiseau being weird*, that’s just San Francisco. There’s a very popular boutique that has a resident Maltese terrier, and several bookshops where random cats can be found just kind of hanging out.
* The way he pets it and the way he speaks to it, though? Yeah, that’s weird. This dude is basically the debate about the word “creepy” personified.
You guys want to throw the ball around?
@pillowinhell, I feel like Canadian politics have been making me celebrate a lot of things I shouldn’t have to celebrate, lately. Like, I’m glad the abortion debate wasn’t reopened, but we shouldn’t have had to worry about it in the first place. And Monday, I was celebrating yet another PC majority in Alberta, because the truly horrifying Wildrose (who formed the official opposition) had been polling so well it looked like they would form a majority. I don’t want to celebrate a PC victory ever. Ever ever.
Cheep cheep, motherfucker.
Oh hi Lissa, Oh hi Mark, Oh hi Denny, Oh hi mattress, Oh hi EVERYTHING IN THE FILM!!!
I watched the Nostalgia Critic do The Room. Apparently, Wiseau made him take it down. Doug Walker (The Critic) posted a video reply to that debacle.
My fiance and I watched it a few months ago. It was hilarious.
This is the movie that invented scotchka, alley football, and the Dominoes WTF special. The RiffTrax of it was one of the best ones that they did, it is well worth the time So many moments. When Lisa’s mom tells Lisa she has cancer and Lisa just says, “don’t worry about it.” When Michelle’s-Boyfriend-Mike tells the story of the scene he was just in, in which Michelle’s-Boyfriend-Mike’s-Girlfriend-Michelle ate chocolate off his penis. The saga of DennyDannyDonny’s drug dealing and his problems Chris R. They reuse the same sex scene, then have a flashback to it.
I think I may know the person that Lisa was based off of.
About the dog–I go to college in a small Eastern Washington town, and one of the antique shops downtown has both a resident dog and a resident cat (the dog likes to get in front of you and keep you from petting the cat) and I’ve seen animals in other stores in other places as well (including a black cat in a yarn store).
But I agree with CassandraSays–the way he interacts with the dog is creepy. Actually, everything he does is creepy. Even the theatrical trailer was setting all my creepy buttons off–especially when he starts destroying the house. Honestly, I consider that do be domestic abuse, too, because I’m sure that there’s an undercurrent of “if you don’t shape up, the next thing I destroy might be you.”
Tommy talks about Lisa and women in an AV Club interview (http://www.avclub.com/articles/tommy-wiseau,29598/):
I suppose I ought to be noticing the frank misogyny, but mostly what I gleaned from that excerpt is that the poor man’s grasp of English (of the spoken in general?) is tenuous at best.
I’ve seen the Room twice. Brilliant movie.
@pillowinhell, i’m just having a bad Blogger hair day. can you post your blog address in the forums?
and also internet hugs to you x
Ive seen The Room a lot (with the rifftrax, and a version I edited it that took out the ghastly sex scenes.)
The movie pretty much speaks for itself. However, heres some extry stuff.
Greg Sistero (also known as ‘The other guy from The Room’), is writing a book on the whole process of making the movie. Heres an interview he did where he mentions it – http://www.popgunchaos.com/2010/10/05/five-questions-with-greg-sestero-from-the-room/ and some more info – http://www.popgunchaos.com/2011/05/31/announcing-the-room-the-book/
Also, Greg Elery, who played the guy halfway through the movie who acts like their oldest friend (who was really supposed to be Peter, because the actor quit [in Wiseau’s word, “Peter left. Now you are like Peter, but you are Steven.”] did an interview with the Rifftrax folks – http://blog.rifftrax.com/2009/06/12/rifftrax-interview-with-the-rooms-greg-ellery/
And some multimedya:
The Room Rap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx-Fc0iVF2A
Also, theres a video game version of The Room (from newsgrounds, I think)
Man, I read that whole quote in his voice.
As for his accent, here’s what Wikipedia says:
So maybe it is a sort of French accent that he’s just taken in a new direction.
Also, the guy who did the Soundtrack for The Room was on like America’s Got Talent (or one of those kinds of shows)
Also, never be far from your favorite moments from The Room with the The Room soundboard – http://www.theroomsoundboard.com/
And then theres this:
I think they played this movie on Adult Swim once as an April Fool’s joke.
Clearly, Wiseau’s voice is an AGIOW: an Accent Going Its Own Way.
Seeing this post just brought to mind one of the plays written by the Virginia-tech shooter: Richard McBeef.
In many ways that story also echoes things misogynists complain about. The titular character, Richard, is a stereotypical “nice guy” who is mocked for being overweight and working only menial, minimum-wage jobs (falls short of the “Alpha” requirements). He is unjustly accused of pedophilia and attempted rape (creep shaming), by his conniving stepson and hysterical, irrational girlfriend. Eventually he can’t take the humiliation anymore and explodes in lethal violence… Much as the writer himself did.
You can watch a production of it on [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9dMiLE-DLQ]Youtube[/url].